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Comment by Beijinger | Hacker News Reader

I can't live without apt-get.

I use Bodhi Linux but, besides the Desktop, this is bascially Ubuntu.

When you bith say apt-get you also mean apt without "get" or there are major differences?

I think they mean the repos. I wouldn't be surprised if apt-get is usually an alias for apt, but I don't know, I just type in apt and what I want to do.

On a server we use nala instead, it's quite nice actually, so maybe I'll start using it elsewhere too.

Speaking for myself: both apt and apt-get are different frontends to the same package management system and repository, which is shared by Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, and other Debian-based distros. I like the package management system; which frontend one uses (apt, apt-get, aptitude, nala, etc) is of secondary importance, as they differ only in user interface and aesthetics.

They are frontends to dpkg but with their own special behaviors layered on top that aren't identical.

Linux Mint recently poured a lot of effort into modernizing and streamlining APT dependencies on their distro and it's great work[0]

[0] https://developer.linuxmint.com/rel_xia_whatsnew.php

`apt` (the program) is a relatively recent addition to the APT (Advanced Package Tool) ecosystem - until not that long ago, `apt-get` was the way to install packages, and `apt` is now a "cleaner" way of interacting with APT.

The sells pitch for apt is "Apt is a newer, more user-friendly version of apt-get." Apt has been around for 10 years at this point, so if they haven't switched they probably aren't going to.

The primary difference between apt and apt-get is apt has better dependency resolution and apt cleans up after itself when you do upgrades (it uninstalls packages that are no longer used).

The apt command also merges functionality from apt-get and apt-cache.

With apt you don't have to use two separate tools to search for packages to install them. That's probably at least a moderate usability improvement for many people since you don't have to figure out whether you need to use apt-get or apt-cache for some particular command.

Is it specifically apt-get that you can't live without, or the concept of a package repository in general?

I'm more and more disappointed that packages are snaps and not directly installed via apt, myself.

I never really liked the RPM system.

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